[Sosfbay-discuss] South SC County Greens participate in San Benito?

[Larry Cafiero_Liaison]

Santa Clara Greens --

The Green Party of San Benito County has discussed the possibility of 
Greens residing in the southern Santa Clara County towns of Morgan Hill 
and Gilroy to participate and vote in the GPSBC meetings. The GPSBC have 
asked me to present this question to you on their behalf.

The GPSBC held their first meeting on March 25, and elected officers and 
a county council. I attended the meeting and found their election of 
county council and officers to be valid. As soon as the regional rep for 
our region, Paul Franklin, reviews the minutes and affirms the process 
of the election of their county council to the state coordinating 
committee, they will be considered a functioning GP county, as outlined 
in the state bylaws at Section 4-1.22.

The question had been raised during the course of the organizational 
meetings of the GPSBC prior to March 25 -- since one Green in particular 
from Gilroy who owns a home in San Benito and one who has contributed to 
the discussion of forming San Benito on-line are residents of Gilroy and 
Morgan Hill respectively -- have said it would be more convenient to 
travel to the San Benito meetings than traveling to Santa Clara meetings.

In fact, a bylaw to that effect had been in the GPSBC bylaws originally 
submitted for approval to the bylaws committee, but was withdrawn on the 
bylaws committee's recommendation.

There are advantages to this arrangement: Primarily -- and this is my 
hope going forward -- it gets people involved in the Green Party and 
makes it easier for them to attend meetings. Also, it provides an 
incentive for Morgan Hill/Gilroy to start a local in their area, as 
outlined in Article 5 of the Santa Clara County bylaws. I am confident 
that San Benito would welcome the formation of such a local, and would 
sunset any bylaws accordingly should a Morgan Hill/Gilroy local be 
formed in Santa Clara County.

The only hangup I can see is remote possibility "double voting" at 
meetings -- that is, Greens from Morgan Hill/Gilroy participating in 
both Santa Clara and San Benito meetings. If anyone sees this as a 
problem or a hangup -- I don't necessarily see it as either, but I would 
gladly field concerns or objections, and I'd welcome any suggestions for 
resolving them.

On a state level, this arrangement would not affect the delegate count 
for plenaries, as those are still calculated solely on the basis of 
registered Greens in each county from data provided by the Secretary of 
State's office. This formula for calculating delegates will remain 
unchanged.

I realize that this may be too late for your agenda for the April 4 
meeting -- and I cannot make this meeting to make a presentation -- but 
I believe there should be discussion on this issue for a possible 
presentation at the May meeting.

Larry Cafiero
Liaison to the Secretary of State's office
Green Party of California